The present invention relates to a package such as a display package, and in particular to such a package which includes a regressively-tiered structure.
As is well known to those in the marketing arts, the packaging in which a product is sold may determine the commercial success of the product more than any attributes of the product itself. The providers of packaging vie among themselves to produce the most innovative, eye-catching and attractive packaging consonant with the configuration and dimensions of the product, and, at least in some instances, the need to protect the product. Nonetheless, most packages are of rectangular parallele-piped configuration (that is, box-like configuration). Some packages define in plan a polygon other than a rectangle, but typically such packages are either substantially cylindrical or conical (whether truncated or not) in design or possessed of a plan design which is constant in both configuration and dimensions throughout the height of the package.
In many instances, the aesthetic demands on the packaging overwhelm what must be the essential function of the packaging--namely, the ability to be easily opened for removal of the contents therefrom. Thus, many of today's packages fail to provide adequate hand-grips or gripping extensions for opening of the packaging. The elderly, the arthritic, and many others simply do not find the two halves of an assembled package easily graspable in such a manner as to enable easy separation thereof. The use of packaging with a texture (e.g., with bumps or dimples) to facilitate grasping thereof may ameliorate the problem for certain users, but not for those who are unable to open or close their fingers about the plan dimensions of the package. The dimensions of the package may be so great that the hands of the user cannot find an adequate purchase on either of the halves as necessary to facilitate opening thereof. Where the two halves of the package at least partially telescope, it is frequently necessary to grasp and shake the outer half so as to allow for a separation therefrom of the inner half.
Finally, economic demands on mass-produced packaging dictate that the package be formed from a single sheet of material, or at least that each of the two halves be made from a single sheet of material.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an aesthetically innovative, eye-catching and appealing package.
Another object is to provide such a package in which each half thereof may be economically made from a single sheet of material.
A further object is to provide such a package which in one embodiment has ergonomic gripping extensions to facilitate opening of thereof.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide such a package which in one embodiment enables the inner volume of the gripping extensions to be occupied by the products being packaged.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a package in which each half thereof may be made in a variety of different configurations and dimensions, but still be recognizable by a common feature thereof.